PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

LIONS CLUB VISITORS: Hampden’s association with local Lions Clubs began four years ago when they provided the six specialty vines for our newly established Remembrance Garden.

Since then these service clubs have provided trees, shrubs, a 5500 litre tank and cash worth over $2000 to enable us to continue with our environmental projects around the school.

Yesterday it was my pleasure to welcome the Lions District Governor Dianne Pyers, local president Gary Foyle and other Lions Club officials to Hampden to see first-hand how we are continuing to expand our environmental education projects here.

There visitors were impressed with our work in this area and left us with a $200 cheque and pledges of ongoing support.

P-3 PUPIL FREE DAY: You will notice on the calendar for September that the 21^st (last day of term) is designated as a special P-3 pupil free day. Children in years 4-7 are not so lucky, however, and are expected at school.

With the introduction of Prep this year, the 21^st has been designated a one-off P-3 Early Phase of Learning planning day for all regional P-3 teachers.

The day will be spent in cluster groups with nominated facilitators workshopping with P-3 teachers in the morning, followed by school team planning in the afternoon.

Don’t forget also about the special Ministerial pupil-free day on Monday the 3^rd for the whole school.

LONG SERVICE LEAVE: Today was the last day of official duty for Sue Wales for the term as she takes a month off on long service leave.

Sue’s replacement for this period will be Kellie-Marie Enfantie, a face familiar to many of you already.

Rosie Dittman will be taking the last two weeks of term off, also on lone service leave.

No replacement for Rosie has been appointed as yet.

I wish both of these dedicated staff members a very relaxing break and look forward to their return next term.

Howard Frost

Principal.

SENIORS IN HARMONY: The dozen Hampden students from years 4 and 6 who attended this Seniors Week activity ‘with a cultural theme’ on Tuesday, came back to school with increased wisdom! Here are some of the things they discovered:

Every family tree has a little sap!!!
Frustration is trying to find your glasses without your glasses.
Friendship multiplies joy and divides grief.
I’m not rich and famous but I do have priceless grandchildren.
There’s nothing like a little experience to upset a theory.
The present is what slips by us while we’re pondering the past and worrying about the future.
God made wrinkles to show where smiles have been.

CRICKET SELECTION: Congratulations to Michael Volker who was selected on Monday as a member of the Mackay Cricket Team to contest the Capricornia Trials next month.

Best wishes for further selection, Michael.

TESTS/SURVEYS: Year 3, 5, 7 tests have been completed now and Student, Staff and Parent Opinion Surveys returned to Brisbane for analysis.

Thank-you to all our families for your prompt assistance in completing these surveys.

SAFETY FIRST: Thank-you to Andrew and Kerri Proctor for their on-going safety marking project around the school. You must have noticed the yellow lines around the play areas and elsewhere.

Thanks also to Greg Leeding for welding up the small tennis court gate which had broken away from its hinges and was a safety concern identified in our Safety Committee’s recent inspection.

WELCOME KERRI-ANN: Kerri-Ann Cahill has often volunteered her time assisting around the classrooms, but now has taken the “next step”!

Kerri-Ann has signed up for an accredited teacher-aide course and will be with us each Thursday as part of this process.

Thanks for your valuable assistance, Kerri-Ann.

SCHOOL BANKING: Just a reminder school banking is now back working again after our recent computer upgrades.

EEC NEWS

Hello Everyone

We helped Mr Fyfe from Mackay City Council in the Rainforest garden yesterday. We wrote numbers on coloured tape and attached them to trees, then measured the height of each tree. In three months time we will measure them again and find out how much they have grown. Mr Fyfe will send us an email with a table of all the data we collected yesterday.

Our Prep Year chefs made mini pizzas with Mrs Nicol this week and shared them with the class – yum! We all looked at how recipes are written and highlighted the different parts – title, ingredients, and method.

Presentations began this week. So far we have been shown how to ride a bicycle (Ricky showed us how the big sprocket and chain makes the little sprocket turn really quickly), how to thread a needle and how to use a car jack (Mrs Medway wasn’t very good at it)!

To improve our writing we investigated ‘string sentences’ and created interesting story starters. We will continue with these strategies over the coming weeks.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

He is no fool who gives away something he cannot keep to gain something he cannot lose. Jim Elliott

ROCK POP MIME

One week to go! Costumes and backdrops are almost ready thanks to a mammoth effort from our volunteers. Our dancers are busily polishing their performances and trying on costumes.

Many thanks to the parents who ferried us to the Sound Shell for our practice on Thursday. A special ‘thank you’ to the Volker family who used their van to transport our rather substantial props.

Another practice this Sunday please – including a full dress rehearsal plus pizza! This will be followed by a performance for the school on Monday morning and another full dress rehearsal on Friday.

Details for the evening of the performance (Saturday 1^st September) will be sent out next week.

P & C NEWS

HELPING JADE: At last Monday’s P & C meeting a discussion was held about how we, as a school community, could assist in helping the Barratt family to offset some of the financial burden of sending Jade to the State Softball Championships in Mt Isa next month.

A week’s accommodation, travel expenses, living expenses, team levy and uniform expenses are conservatively estimated at over $2000!

A raffle has been decided upon and tickets are included with this newsletter, with addition tickets available from the office.

Stephanie Cruickshanks has “chased up” three fabulous prizes thanks to the generosity of the Kuttabul Butchery, Kuttabul Roadhouse, and GG Walters Retravision (Walkerston).

Please do your best to sell these tickets to support Jade and his family.

FOOTY BARS: Thank-you to everyone who has been able to help out at the footy working behind the bars.

Support has come not only from parents, but also from former parents, school staff, and other community members. A real team effort!

We have only two bars to operate this Sunday, and these are right for volunteers, however next Sunday is a different story.

Not only is it Father’s Day, but we have four bars to operate as it is Grand Final Day.

Please let Frank Perna know if you can help out for two hours at some stage next Sunday, as we need more help for this our last day of footy bars.

Issue no.27, 24th August 2007

Issue no.27, 24^th August 2007